On March 28, 2020, the Prime Minister held the 24th meeting of the Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters at the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the meeting, a discussion was held on the response to the novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19).Following the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“Today, we have decided the basic action policy, which is stipulated in the Act on Special Measures for the Novel Coronavirus. The policy provides unified guidance for protecting the people’s lives and to further advance relevant measures, while accurately understanding the situation related to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Through this policy, the national and local governments, medical practitioners, business operators, and the public will be able to work together. It emphasizes, as an overarching policy, the following objectives:

controlling the speed at which the outbreak spreads, by containing clusters and other transmissions and reducing opportunities for people-to-people contact through communication and information-sharing, as well as measures to prevent the infections from spreading;

exerting every effort to protect the elderly and minimize the number of severely ill patients and deaths through surveillance and information-sharing, as well as the provision of appropriate medical treatment; and

minimizing the impacts on social and economic functions with adequate preventive measures, as well as economic and employment measures.

For each pillar, effective measures have been compiled, while sufficiently incorporating experts’ insights.
Currently, the number of new patients is increasing particularly in urban areas and the number of patients whose route of transmission is unknown is also on the rise. There has also been a sudden surge in the number of patients and the deaths worldwide. This is truly an extremely important moment for preventing the rapid spread of infections in the country, and I ask each of you to steadily and swiftly implement this basic action policy and exert every effort to respond to the situation with the government working as one.

The spread of the novel coronavirus has reduced global economic activities, and the Japanese economy has also been significantly impacted. In the intensive hearings we held, we heard serious voices from people faced with very difficult circumstances. Our immediate priority is to prevent the spread of infections and symptoms from getting severe. Afterwards, we will return the Japanese economy to a solid growth path. We must implement strong economic and fiscal policies that commensurate with the great magnitude of the impacts. In addition to the 26-trillion-yen comprehensive economic measures, among others, we will formulate a new supplementary budget and fully mobilize bold fiscal, monetary and tax measures, without being constrained by past practices.

The first pillar of our economic measures is the development of preventive measures against the spread of infection and medical treatment structures, as well as pharmaceuticals. As an immediate response to the spread of infections, we will further enhance our measures to prevent the spread of infections, such as by fundamentally strengthening counter-cluster measures to break the chains of infections. We will also urgently set up medical treatment structures that put emphasis on providing medical care for patients with severe symptoms, in preparation for the sudden surge of patients. Furthermore, we will also prioritize the research and development of therapeutic medication and vaccines the most, and accelerate the development of therapeutic medication in one push.

The second pillar is to protect employment and sustain business continuity. We will develop a scheme that provides access to interest-free loan programs through private financial institutions so as to protect the jobs and daily lives of individuals working under different work contracts, including freelancing, and enable micro-, small-, and medium-sized business operators and individual business owners to continue their business activities. We will also establish a new subsidy for micro-, small- and medium-sized business operators among others, which are facing particularly severe situations, to continue their businesses. Along with these measures, we will also establish a new subsidy to swiftly provide the necessary funding to maintain their daily lives for households in need, whose revenues have declined because of temporary closures and other impacts of the novel coronavirus.

The third pillar is to recover economic activities through public-private efforts, as the next phase. Looking beyond the containment of the outbreak, we will implement large-scale support measures, in the form of a nationwide, public-private campaign aimed at generating flows of people and revitalizing local communities, targeting industries affected enormously such as tourism, transportation, food services, event and entertainment businesses. When doing so, we will further strengthen support measures, as well as bolster employment and liquidity support, in light of the delaying of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The fourth pillar is to develop a resilient economic structure. We will develop an economic structure that is resilient against infectious diseases, by strongly promoting supply chain measures, such as support to relocate production bases to Japan; measures to facilitate the operations of businesses that have expanded overseas; and measures to make the economy more resilient and efficient, through the use of ICT, including tele-working and distance education. When doing so, we will exert every effort to expedite the execution of public investment and sustain the economy.

The fifth pillar is to prepare for the future. We will establish contingency funds for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) responses, and build readiness that is more than sufficient for implementing the necessary measures without hesitation, in response to the situation of infection and economic trends.
We will compile emergency economic measures comprised of these five pillars within around 10 days and submit a supplementary budget to the Diet swiftly. I ask the Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy and other ministers to proceed with the necessary preparations to that end. I also ask that you thoroughly consult the Minister of Finance on any matters requiring budgetary measures.

To reiterate, in order to overcome this situation, which could be described as a national crisis, I ask each of you to exert every effort in various responses with the government working as one.”